Verizon Tiered Data Plans Arrive More Expensive Than AT&T

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Verizon is going the way of AT&T, but not as cheaply as AT&T. Come July 7 (two days as of this posting), the company is axing its unlimited, all-you-can-eat plans for multiple tiered options. How expensive are they? What happens to your current plan? Inquire within!

Right to business: Verizon smartphone owners are looking at $30 for 2GB on the low end, as well as $50 for 5GB and $80 for those who want 10GB. Go over, and you're looking at an overage charge of 10 bucks a gig. There's also a $10 monthly plan for 75MB of data for folks who use basic phones that are still Internet-enabled.

Contrast that with AT&T's tiered offerings: $15 for 200MB, $25 for 2GB and $45 for 4G. The plans aren't as numerous or as generous, but AT&T is a better value or cheaper for its two low-end plans, respectively. Verizon's $50/5GB ($10 per GB) offering is decidedly more enticing than $45/4GB ($11.25 per GB).

Fans of tethering will have to pony up an additional $20 a month, which will also add another 2GB of space.

So, there it is for subscribers who sign into the Verizon empire after July 7. If you're already on Verizon and have a 3G or 4G LTE device, there's hope. Verizon's Brenda Raney talked to FierceWireless over what's coming for those existing subs:

Existing customers who upgrade on or after July 7 will be able to upgrade to another smartphone and keep their unlimited smartphone data plan, Raney said.

Verizon also is making pricing changes to its LTE mobile hotspot service, available from smartphones like the HTC ThunderBolt and Samsung Droid Charge. Currently, the LTE mobile hotspot feature is free and unlimited. Raney said that for customers who have been using the LTE mobile hotspot service on their phones, starting July 7, they will be charged $30 per month for unlimited LTE mobile hotspot use. For new customers, the mobile hotspot service will cost $20 for an extra 2 GB of data to be used for mobile hotspot service or any other data service. The mobile hotspot changes were first reported by the Android blog Droid Life.

We're thinking that most users are going to be going for the 2GB plan and will be happy with it. The bummer here is that Verizon's current plan is $30 for as much data as you want, so these tiered plans — which are supposed to make the data hogs pay more — aren't helping the average smartphone user pay less.

How much is 2GB? Well, you can play around with Verizon's data calculator here and AT&T's here. You'd probably be better off finding a data meter app for your iPhone or Android handset, however, and gauging how much you really use.